I really have no idea why people think this is a cash grab, not only have they released a dog fighting A.I. Alpha they have added multiplayer dog fighting and just recently Racing. It all has went exactly to plan and they keep on polishing it while implementing what they learn into other projects and using the online gameplay data to get the persistent universe eventually working smoothly.

This is a AAA game that is absolutely massive in scope, this is truly a Man's dream game coming to life and the projected retail release date is in 2016 with many more betas for the backers on the way and the community+dev interaction is top notch.

seems you lack reading comprehension, another clueless person who skims over posts in a hurry to make their point? Conceptual Art and Models? lol, did you miss the fact, all there trailers are in game AND you can play the Alpha dog fighting Module since several months ago??? And they just released a racing module. Do you bother to check anything before you spout your ignorantly misinformed opinions.

I spent $50 for Guild Wars 2 and i have to say I never ever thought i would put close to 500 hours into a game that seems to drop free dlc every 3 weeks so is StarCitizen doable?

I laugh.

What you experiencing right now is pre alpha and even the stupid editor said it himself, 2 years in.

When was the last time you played a game that was complete and half this size and free of bugs in a two year dev cycle.

Ive been playing Project Cars for over a year and it still has Pre alpha issues after a year plus dev time so RELAXE.

The more money the bigger the team gets but im looking at 2016 for SC to be full fledged and good to go but until then Elite Dangerous is a nice fill in until SC is up and running even then the FPS ASPECT of the game will not drop until 2017.

Heck look at Archage, 6 YEARS and its English version has lots of issues but OMG its an ambitious game also sur to give gamers 500 hours easily

Plus Chris never really asks for more money. He puts up stretch goals. People throw the money at them. And on top of that you gotta realize just because they're getting more money does NOT mean the games is going to get made any quicker. In fact typically when you have more stuff to do things take more time, but maybe that's not how things work...

It is worrying that he says "they need more money". That just makes me think that they don't know how to efficiently manage the project. There are plenty of AAA games out there that don't have their budget.

@strangeaeon This game is beyond standard AAA, no other game has this graphical fidelity and attention to detail. This is a game built from the ground up as a PC exclusive AAA title that will stress the best GPUs that are not even out yet, it's not going to be a port of anything with blurry textures or going to be watered down to make sure they can port it to consoles later, or for people with older PCs and outdated hardware, they are not going to hold back the game either, Chris Roberts is making a game with little to no compromises, and it's going to be awesome, there's not a game that exists right now that rivals the scope of what this game will be.

The nay-sayers seem to be too caught up with the console AAA meaning, which is basically a decent looking game with a huge marketing budget, Star Citizen is way above that to the point that there is nothing to compare it to, because no other game like this exists.

I'm not worried. Roberts has a long history of successful games and as much as I want the game sooner than later... the last thing I want them to do is rush it.

I've been beta testing this for over a year now and the chunks we've gotten our hands on is outstanding. The first 10 chapters of "squadron 42" are going to be finished in probably January. For those of you who don't know. Squadron 42 is a 50 chapter story-driven single person (with some co-op) game that introduces the player to the Star Citizen universe, it's politics, and it's history. In order for a game to have long term success, it needs to get the player emotionally invested in the games universe through characters, mysteries, and other things to keep someone coming back for more. Squadron 42 is not going to be part of what people like myself have been testing. It's going to be released in around 6 months as a finished, polished 10 chapters out of a total of 50. Half way through 2015 the full blown perpetual universe should enter beta testing for the thousands of us investors. Depending on our progress, it could be ready by years end, but no promises. During that time, the alpha development team will be releasing groups of 10 chapters as they are ready to make public. I think the plan to get Squadron 42 into peoples hands soon is a smart one. People who invested money need that assurance that things are moving along nicely. This is why videos like seen in this article are being released at regular intervals. It's not a delay tactic, but a means to show that the game is well underway.

BTw... that video is over a month old. How about you guys check out a little clip from the First Person Shooter aspect of the game, as you'll see in Squadron 42.

Roberts also has a long history with pie in the sky. Have a look at how many companies hes opened and closed. Lets not forget about his "stellar" film directing. The man has not shipped a game in over 10 years, I want to believe and I want Star Citizen to be a success but I'm just rather skeptical about the whole thing.

Watch the damn videos if you don't believe me. How many games have you developed? No honest person can look at those three videos and then try and tell me this is just a cash grab. The amount of work being put into developing something on this level is beyond comprehension. At least Roberts is actually trying to push the limits of video game graphics, something I can't say for a lot of these half-a$$ed games that so many people on this site bust out their knee pads for.

The development budget as of now is $53,000,000 and look at the results.

In contrast, here are the budgets of games you all know. Destiny- $500,000,000 (yes... i know that's for expansions, perhaps a sequal. Regardless, the game doesn't reflect that kind of money at all) Star Wars: Old republic- $200,000,000 Max Payne 3: $145,000,000 DeadPool: $100,000,000 Watch Dogs: $68,000,000 Crysis 3: $70,000,000

So their budget for MULTIPLE games (Squadron 42, Main persistent universe, and tons of DLC) is 1/10 that of Destiny and the graphics are so far beyond what Bungie made, Star Citizen makes the game look like it belongs on PS1.

And FYI, Roberts didn't screw up Origin Systems. That was COMPLETELY due to Electronic Arts. Remember their slogan was "We Create Worlds"? If you had played Ultima 7, the antagonist, The Guardian is called "The Destroyer of Worlds", and the 3 evil objects the guardian is using to open a gate to Brittania are a black sphere, Cube, and pyramid. Now go look at EA's logo in the early 90's. Haha. After the EA aquisition, they forced deadlines on Ultima 8 and 9, destroying that great series... then subsequently dismantled the company.

Digital Anvil was a subsidiary of Microsoft and was doing good for multiple game releases. We all know wing commander the film was a flop. But aren't all video game based movies? And it was microsoft who sold off parts of the company to Ubisoft, roberts had already left. The thing people don't understand about the real world is to be successful, you have to take risks. and all risk takers have failures. had it not been for him putting his ass on the line, some of the greatest, most ground breaking games would have never been made. Roberts has been a risk taker his whole life and has done very well making video games. I salute the guy. And anyone who works hard, creates jobs, and creates wealth.

Legion- If you are part of the beta, then you know exactly what is being worked on. And for much of the last year, I was in your camp. I had expected something completely different from what we were being given as beta testers. But the last couple months those things i thought gone were actually almost finished by the main developers. I still feel like the beta testers have been treated more like interns who get stuck with the grunt work nobody wants to do. I guess Roberts took us all too seriously when we wanted to help with the game... but in the sense of playing something fun and more "game like". it will be worth it in the end.

The delusion in this one is strong. Try to think objectively. First of all the scale of this project is HUGE it is very ambitious and a there is a lot to do. I think they are trying to do too much all at once and there are many irrelevant things that they are doing that just was time, money and resources.

The racing while it may be fun is a bit of a time wasting side project.

The FPS is great but seriously if it takes other companies to make just an FPS games 2-3 years how much longer will it take Roberts to produce both a space sim and and an FPS game not to mention he has the other smaller side projects.

I bet you that squadron 42 will not be available early next yeah not chance whatsoever.

Also why are they asking for more money so soon, did they already burn through the million their fans so generously donated?

as far as i know the only ammount they disclosed to the public is 500 mil (which is presumably for the whole Destiny lifespan).

One of the Bungie guys did a presentation on how their gear creation system was made. The system was the most expensive part to make and now it's finally up and running it gets easier to create a lot of new gear. I do get that those systems cost a lot, but i really can't see in Destiny that it would have cost more than 100 mil to make.

Am I the only one that has a problem with paying hundreds of dollars for a ship in a game? Not to mention you have to pay for insurance for it, otherwise those hundreds of dollars goes down the drain if you crash it. I was really excited for this game until I started reading into all of the ridiculous microtransactions. Blows my mind people are actually willing to blow tons of money on digital crap in a game.

You are not paying hundreds of dollars for a ship in the game. You are PLEDGING for a ship. I only backed with the Aurora Legionnaire and I am set. All of the ships will be available on launch for the player to buy with in-game money. So don't worry about having to spend loadsa money on the game. And insurance is not supposed to be THAT expensive ingame, so as long as you make the dough, you can keep up with the bill.

It blows MY mind how people are actually willing to throw accusations and half baked opinions out. lol As @Ragthorn said..and others above if you would have read (which clearly you do not do any research as your statement suggests). you dont HAVE to shell out ANY money for this game except for the $35 for the Aurora and an Arena Commander pass. They have said countless times that when the game actually releases, EVERYTHING in the game will be able to be bought with in game currency. ALSO, that the "real money" prices for these ships will be multiplied when the game releases to prevent people from abusing the benefit of having a lot of money. I dont mean any offense here, i just think that if youre gonna post such a bold opinion, know what youre talking about.

Pretty sure if you just look at the website really quick they have a few ships listed for literally hundreds of dollars. And I'm pretty sure people have purchased said ships, sorry, "pledged" for said ships (whatever justifies throwing money away)... so I don't see how what I said is either an accusation or a "half baked opinion." And yes, you may be able to get everything with in game currency, but games like this make it to where it takes a ridiculous number of hours to get even the most basic stuff, that way you're encouraged to pay. Because, after all, they're in it to make money. But awesome, the ship prices are even going to increase. I take it you're one of those idiots that threw down 300 bucks for a digital ship... sorry, "pledged."